The following are my notes of
Donna Mulhearn’s presentations, Toowoomba 5th and 6th
October, 2004. Any errors, misquotations and omissions are mine. Sometimes the
emotional language may have issued in generalizations that only the most
pedantic of arm-chair listeners would have failed to recognize as the passion
borne of first-hand experience with war and its aftermath. – Neil Godfrey
“I am a pacifist. I believe if we are serious about being
a pacifist we must be willing to take the same risks for peace as we do for
war.” – Donna
These notes are taken from the
presentation at USQ, 6th October. I have
added other notes from the presentation of the prior evening in Toowoomba out of
sequence separately at the end.
Donna wanted to tell of the
challenges of getting through a day in Iraq. D’s experiences are mostly in
Baghdad, but advised listeners to keep in mind that it is worse outside Baghdad.
Donna had been in Baghdad before the war (went as part of the human shield
movement) so was able to compare pre and post war conditions.
First thing on
waking in morning: turn on a light switch, and hope something happens – often
nothing happens. This is a country that
has been used to modern appliances and technology. Iraqis even seemed a little
technology-mad. It is a harsh climate, extremes of temperature, so electricity
has become a necessity. Imagine no fans, and children screaming and parents
unable to apply cold water to cool them. Hundreds have died from heat exhaustion
in Baghdad this summer. Parents take shifts they can continue fanning their
babies all night long.
Yet in 1991 Baghdad was bombed and
all power centres were destroyed then. (This war they were only damaged.) Yet
after the 1991 war the electricity was restored within 3 months.
There is evidence to suggest that
power is not being fully restored as a means of collective punishment. Americans
routinely report that they have cut off power to centres they believe harbour
those opposed to them. e.g. just prior to their assault
on Fallujah. Surgeons in Fallujah used cigarette lighters and torches for emergency
surgery. Same applies to Najaff, Sammara,
…. someone turns the power off. and on in those places, too.
Another reason for no power: The
Coalition intends to privatize hundreds of Iraq’s formerly state-owned utilities
(oil, power, etc.). So the thinking seems to be Why
should we fix the power now when whoever buys the utility will want to use their
own equipment to repair and add to it.
Water: First realize Iraq is/was
not a Third World country. Before the war one could drink from the tap. Now
either there is no water or it is dirty if from the tap. Now many have died from
cholera and dyssentry, diseases that were unseen for
decades in Iraq. Now a middle class household cannot
afford to buy bottled water.
Many Iraqis are now saying that
they want the old Iraq back.
At this point Donna began the
slide presentation. First image was a Baghdad street, littered with rubbish,
rolls of razor wire left strewn across part of the street in the foreground. A
journey that once took 10 to 15 minutes across town now took 2 to 3 hours. A
trip that once took 2 to 3 hours now took all day to do it.
Coalition forces block the highway
apparently at a whim. Donna asked soldiers with a tank blocking a main
intersection at peak hour traffic time why they were blocking the road then. She
reported that one of them replied: Because we can. 350 people were waiting to
pass. It appeared to Donna as a psychological ploy, to show who was in charge.
Petrol: One sees cars queueing for petrol 7 to 8 hours, stretching 2 to 3 kilometers down the road. Taxi drivers have to leave at 2 to
3 a.m. to get a full tank by mid-day. Yet this is a place where oil is in such
abundance it can be seen on the ground. It costs 25 cents to fill a car.
The worst part about life in Iraq
is psychological, the emotional side. Leaving home in the morning one lives with
the sick feeling of wondering if one will come home alive. There are no safe
zones. U.S. forces actually attract violence by their presence – whether foot
patrols, tanks, choppers. Parents fear to send their kids to schools. Before the
war cafes would be open till late at night, now they close at 5 or earlier.
“A blanket of violence has settled
on Baghdad.” People are living in fear – fear wondering if a husband or children
will come home. People are emotionally exhausted, on the brink. They have had
one and a half years of this. They want the same things we do. They feel
betrayed and humiliated and want to get the foreigners out of Iraq.
Donna showed a slide photograph of
several smiling Iraqi boys with her.
Donna said she needed to have an
excuse for her mother, who wouldn’t let her go, to return to Iraq. This came
when she was notified of homeless kids on the streets. Before the war there was
no homeless for kids in Iraq. Now there are hundreds.
Aid groups have been leaving in
droves since the UN was bombed. There were also girls among the homeless
children, but these have now been taken off the streets by mosques and churches.
The homeless boys she met were
tough kids, living in basements on concrete floors with their filth. They were
violent, living with drugs, weapons, robbing and begging to survive. At first
Donna/her group bought them a meal a day just to enable them to reduce their
need to rob or beg by just a little. They were always filthy. Donna’s group
shocked staff at a hotel when they took a group of them in to have showers
before being given new clothes.
There were 20 takers of the offer
of Donna’s shelter to house these boys. The conditions they made on the boys for
acceptance was that they stop their drugs and violence. What the boys loved was
lots of holding hands and one on one time. So she spent many hours playing
snakes and ladders with them. They wanted clothes, DVD players, but especially
hugs.
Achmed
One time one of the boys (Achmed?) punched his fist through a window and began
slashing his arm with a piece of broken glass. When spoken to he said he was
“angry at everything.” He was put into sport and shone with talent and
leadership. Told one day that he could represent Iraq at the Olympics he replied
nonchalantly, “I know” – he was good at all sports, esp soccer, which he said he wanted to enter
seriously.
Leggo and
drawings
Another picture showed the boys
playing with Leggo. This is what they should be
playing with. They had been earlier playing with bullet shells and tossing razor
wire at each other.
The boys did lots of drawings.
Their drawings were always filled with scenes of violence and battles. These
were always around them, tanks and bombs. Also their drawings always had a palm
tree and a sun, emblems of Iraq, and always an Iraqi soldier holding a flag and
a gun with his foot on an American soldier. In their drawings Iraq always wins.
They are very proud.
Nation of kids
46% of the population of Iraq are
below the age of
16. That is, this is a war on a nation of kids. It is a nation of
people riddled with post traumatic stress disorders – whether 3 or 6 or 7 years
old. Constantly one hears choppers, tanks, and bombs. There were 8 or 9 bombs a
day going off in Baghdad. Now the situation is worse.
The work of Donna and her
friends
Drawing, also ceramics, art and
theatre, and computers and music, helps the boys express themselves – such
opportunities were provided them to help them deal with their emotional states.
The home for these boys was built
to hold 250. When it opened 400 turned up. 750 now go to its facilities. It is
funded by Australians – raffles and dinners are held to raise money.
Baghdad was clean and beautiful.
Now it is littered with sewage, razor wire, concrete barriers. Not pleasant
having one’s clothes, skirt, torn by the razor wire. And many kids are injured
by it as they try to get past it. Every 2 or 3 blocks one sees houses reduced to
rubble.
Photo of a
covered body in street outside a shop, with a crowd around. The man had been buying cigarettes at the shop when his
head was split in two by a bomb blast. Donna had been planning to go to that
same shop to buy some milk but thanks to her habit of not being able to start
the day without a shower she was delayed and thus missed being the victim by 10
minutes. The Iraqis nearby were discussing who was responsible for the bombing,
as they always do when this happens. But as always they all ended up agreeing
that the Americans were to blame. Their logic is simple and compelling: the
bombers are here now because the Americans are here. They never had them before
the Americans came, so the Americans must go.
Photo of the
American military vehicle which was the target of the blast. It’s window is shattered and a
soldier sits inside with the door open.
Photo of an
American soldier standing at the scene of the above bombing. He looks worried, feeling emotional. Donna saw two
categories of soldiers there, though there are some in between these two types.
She asked this soldier how he felt seeing the Iraqi body there, knowing that the
bomb had been intended to kill him, the soldier, instead. Soldier replied: “I
don’t want to be here. I have family at home and want to be with them. What’s
this all about?”
The other type of soldier is more
the Schwarzenegger type: he points his gun at Donna, and Iraqis, keeping them at
their distance from him. He is cold and threatening to all. It’s his way of
coping, surviving. He will be the type who will be having post traumatic stress
disorder problems when he returns to America.
When Donna speaks to soldiers she
can do so in a challenging way and speak badly about them in a way that Iraqis
cannot. Donna can take photos of them against the army orders, but not the
Iraqis. If they do express criticism of the soldiers they can expect to have
their homes raided at night, the women and children forced out into the street
in their nightware (very shameful for a Moslem woman),
and the men taken off to Abu Grahib (and we all know
what happens in Abu Grahib) for some days or weeks or
months or never to be released as yet. This reminds Iraqis of the days of Saddam
– they are still terrified to speak. What has changed in that score? When Donna challenges the soldiers in a peaceful way the always got
applause from the Iraqis.
Choppers: There are always 4 or 5
in the air over Baghdad all day and night. The noise is so loud that one cannot
hear oneself speak. And they hover over one house at a
time at night, too, in the dark. The noise is so disturbing that people end up
shaking their fists at them. Their purpose appears to be to intimidate the
population, to remind them of the American domination. Their noise and presence
is oppressive.
Photo of a squatters’ camp:
Squatters, those who have lost everything because of the war, live in vacant
farm lands or burnt out buildings. This photo was of squatters in tents
surrounded by land drenched in open sewage. Donna gave these squatters $200 to
buy some pipes and tools to build a drainage system and change their lives for
the better. The aid and reconstruction budget is a joke in Iraq. $18 billion has
been claimed to have been allocated for aid for Iraqis but so far only a
smallest fraction of it has been spent, mostly on security guards (private
mercenaries, called “civilian contractors” by officials and the media) to
protect the staff of Halliburton and Bechtel there. These private mercenaries
are from South Africa, some from Australia’s SAS, and earn about $1000 a day.
Donna is to return to Iraq in 6
weeks and will focus on the lot of the squatters.
The siege of Fallujah was a massacre, not only from the bombing and
artillery. The town was shut off so no foreign media was allowed to enter.
Snipers shot anything that they thought moved, including ambulances. Most
ambulances in Fallujah were destroyed. The Pentagon
denied Donna’s report of this (the shooting at ambulances) but the photo showed
4(?) bullet holes in the rear door of an ambulance.
The US only ever controlled a
quarter of the city. US cut off the hospital there so that only US troops could
be treated in it; Iraqi wounded were denied access to it and had to small doctor
surgeries and other homes for treatment. With no electricity surgeons would work
on patients by the light of cigarette lighters. The Fallujah morgues were overflowing, and 2 cemeteries had to
be dug in football fields. Non-stop the bodies would be coming in for treatment
at these makeshift surgeries. Most of them could not be saved. A couple of
thousand civilians and fighters were killed by Donna’s estimate. CNN was not
there so this was not a story elsewhere. Patients she saw being carried in were
children, women, men in suits (clearly not
fighters).
Photo of a very
young girl with a gun, with clear anger in her eyes.
Story of an 82 year old grandma
who was holding a white flag when she was shot: she had been trying to reach her
grandchild who had been shot and was lying in the street.
Men took up guns for fear of the
soldiers who were coming to enter into their homes. Every man was willing to
fight.
Donna was in Fallujah trying to deliver aid to the wounded. Donna and her
friends were begged by Iraqis to do this, the Iraqis insisting that since they
were white they would be able to do it without getting shot. In response Donna
and her friends filled an ambulance with food and aid to take to those hiding in
the buildings. They then walked ahead to announce their presence, holding their
passports, their hands high in the air, with loud speakers, to declare who they
were and their intention to deliver the aid. 2 bullets shot over their heads in
response. They dived to the ground, picked themselves up and scrambled away,
bleeding from where they had gashed themselves in their fall. But once together
again, they grew indignant, saying that the soldiers can’t do that, that they
can’t shoot at those delivering aid to the wounded in war, Geneva Conventions,
etc…. and with the adrenelin rush they became angry
and motivated to try once again. This time they faced the soldiers, knowing know
where they were after the shots fired last time. This time, 4 bullets fired just
above their heads was the response. They took this as a definite No to their
request to be allowed to deliver the aid, and did not try again.
Photo of a family inside a tent:
they had just buried the eldest son and father(?).
Donna was visiting them as part of her mission to build bridges between Iraqis
and Australians, to tell them that many Australians opposed the war. One man
asked Donna to tell us his story:
None of his family now had shoes. All
barefoot. (A shame for the provider of family.)
A young boy had deep wounds on his back from when he had to be pulled quickly
through razor wire as they were escaping the bombing of their homestead and farm
by the Americans. The man said that under Saddam, if people were politically
active, they could suffer. If they were quiet, they were free to enjoy the
ballet, theatres, operas, poetry houses, etc. He was one of the politically
active ones under Saddam, and his brother and uncle were killed by Saddam. When
Saddam fell he was hopeful and looked forward to the time then when the
Americans go and a new Iraq could be built. Why are the Americans still here?
he asked. “They destroyed my farm and my house…. what
is our sin?” Donna heard often: Life was hard under Saddam but the Iraqi
speaking would give anything today to have him back in power. Donna: How could
the US stuff up so badly! Under the Americans, this man had no future, no hope
anymore, no future for his children any more. All that
was left for him was to fight till the last American soldier leaves the country.
He was not a Saddam loyalist or a Baathist or a
foreigner (as Rumsfeld insists are those fighting the
Americans in Iraq.)
Film
footage (leaked by an American soldier) showing a heat camera (hence black and
white) shot from a military helicopter.
The film is also available via Robert Fisk, on the internet. It is footage that
shows, with sound, the American gunners taking deliberate aim at a truck and
tractor, at unarmed men, including one lying on the ground wounded from a
previous hit, to kill them one by one. (Of course shooting to kill a wounded man
is another war crime.) The target men were not attempting to fight back, carried
no weapons, and appeared to be civilians going about their daily rounds.
Another photo showed the
effects of a cluster bomb. A 15 year old boy had picked one up and held it
between his legs. He was blind in one eye, lost both hands, and appeared to be
‘wiped out’ at the genital area.
What Iraqis think of
Australia’s involvement: Howard is reported extensively in Iraqi media. Iraqis
ask what Australia’s reward was for going to war there.
Donna was captured with a
British and American by local militia there. The Brit and the American were put
to one side and the Australian, Donna, was singled out. Donna wondered if the
militia leader was going to cry when he approached her. Why did Australia come
here with guns, to kill Iraqis? he asked. He had
thought we were friends, -- soccer, trade. Donna told
him that thousands opposed the war. Then how could he (Howard) do it then? he asked. The people did not endorse the war, nor did
Parliament, explained Donna. And you want to teach us democracy? he scoffed.
Iraqis are hurt by
Australia’s involvement. They had thought we were friends. Why do we have
Australians there with guns? they wonder.
The withdrawal of Spain
was applauded in Iraq. The militia leader on hearing of the coming election in
Australia said “God willing ALP will become President (sic) in Australia.”
They are very interested
in Australia’s election. It is not a matter of ‘academic discussion’ or debate –
we are clearly an increased likely target since our involvement in the war.
Donna went to Iraq before the war, and was at first greatly welcomed there. Now
they want Donna to explain Australia’s involvement.
Donna’s hope was that
though we may be disturbed by the talk we had just heard, that we are also empowered by it: to stay engaged with
the Iraqi people; to seek the withdrawal of the troops, who represent judgment;
and to seek to send humanitarian aid, which represents friendship.
The following includes
other parts of Donna’s above presentation not in sequence, some points from the
presentation the evening before, and some responses to questions, some from
personal discussion after the talk. – Neil Godfrey
Threat of civil war? Support for the insurgency?
90% of the Iraqi
population support the insurgency. 10,000 were in Abu Grahib as political prisoners; only 20% of those are foreign
fighters (Syrians, Jordanians).
If the Americans leave the
violence would halve overnight, including that from foreign terrorists,
too.
There is no threat of a
civil war.
There is a widespread
popular Iraq Democracy Movement (womens’groups,
unions, teachers,….)doing workshops and training daily
to prepare for democracy. They are capable and ready and willing. They want Iraq
to be a secular democratic state; they don’t want to become like Iran. We don’t
hear about this here.
Role of Iran, the UN,
Bremer ....
Iran may want to influence
religious agenda in Iraq but not the political.
UN is not trusted; it is
seen as pro-US; maybe hope for a UN role if they could get respect back among
Iraqis.
Bremer was called by
Iraqis the “white Saddam”.
Depleted uranium has been
removed from the Green Zone. This is another story.
The Australian area in
Baghdad
The Australian embassy is
a fortress – the embassy staff don’t meet the Iraqi
people – visits are run quickly…. but the people are so traumatized….
Australian area of
Baghdad: She said it is a safer area in Baghdad, the building housing the
soldiers is opposite the embassy -- it cannot be seen from outside for all the
trees etc, although if one looks closely one can see the barrels of guns/tanks
pointing out. There is a large hotel opposite the embassy housing many. Also she
said the australian embassy staff never go out
anywhere and if they do it is always with 2 "tanks" and ten armed soldiers,
which she says only attracts unwelcome attention to them. Compared the Brits who
came to visit her work (home for homeless kids in Baghdad) who came in plain
clothes and jeep, even the soldiers in plain clothes, though wearing
bullet-proof vests. She had to cancel the visit of the australian embassy staff after they first did a dummy run,
because the way it was to be done threatened the peace and security of the area
she is trying to help build.-- tanks and soldiers guarding someone "special"
only attracting
unwanted attention
of anyone who would be prepared to launch a missile at them.
Response to Howard’s
claims
There is no 'normal' life
there, she said. Howard talks (Howard’s pre-election flyer mailed to all
Australians spoke of rosy conditions in Iraq – schools opening, mobiles owned…)
of mobiles and universities and schools opening, but she says most mobiles don't
work,
and unis and
schools lack equipment and most staff and are almost still very empty despite
being declared 'open'.
When the Americans
left....
When the americans have been forced out of a city even temporarily
(as in Fallujah --imagine a city the size of Toowoomba
forcing the American army out!) peace and normal life was restored -- children
back in the streets playing, citizens working and going about without fear...
but when the americans return it is another daily
series of massacres.
An article by Donna
http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=2400
An interview with
Donna
http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/03/nov/2/19.html
ABC Radio’s story (with
photographs, links)
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/history/streets/stories/s1188594.htm
Feel free to forward this
information on, and use it to write letters to Government members challenging
the claims. Tell them it was written by someone who was there…
Claim: Electricity, water,
telephone and sanitation systems have been restored to at least pre-war
levels.
Fact: Electricity in pre-war Iraq
was constant and reliable. Now it is intermittent, unpredictable and barely
there. Iraqis are furious that power is still erratic almost 18 months since the
invasion.
Fact: Water quality in Iraq before
the war was excellent. Now it is appalling. Often, in Baghdad, when you turn on
your tap nothing comes out. If something dribbles out it is brown and
contaminated. Outside Baghdad people are drinking from the rivers. All over Iraq
hundreds of people, mostly children, have died from water-related diseases not
seen in Iraq for decades. These diseases are at epidemic levels.
Fact: Sanitation before the war
was of a high standard. Now there are large pools of raw sewerage in the streets
in most neighbourhoods. In squatter camps, people are forced to live amongst
their own waste. Hundreds of children and adults are dying as a result.
Claim: Mobile phones, once
outlawed, are being sold at the rate of 15,000 a week.
Fact: Indeed, Iraqis have outlaid
a huge investment to purchase mobile phones from Iraqna, an Egyptian company who currently have a monopoly on
providing mobile services in Baghdad. But most of the time the service simply
doesn’t work. Iraqis are outraged at the appalling service provided by the
incompetent Iraqna, given the over-priced fees that
average Iraqis are forced to pay in US currency. On any given day there are
queues of angry Iraqis outside Iraqna offices
complaining that they have been robbed and cheated. Many Iraqis end up throwing
the phone away.
Most landlines are still not
functioning after all the exchanges were bombed during the invasion.
Claim: All the universities are
open and 2,500 schools have been rehabilitated.
Fact: Of the universities that
remain open, many classrooms are lifeless and empty. Students might turn up but
many professors have simply left, or were sacked by the coalition. Science labs,
medical faculties etc have no equipment for practical lessons. Students are demoralized.
The majority of schools are in
various states of disrepair and do not have the equipment or books required for
lessons. Some schools have reported any hasty ‘renovations’ to be shabby and
incomplete.
Many students don’t turn up
because their parents are too afraid to send them to school because of the chaos
and violence on the streets.
Teachers also attribute the high
drop-out rate among students to poverty and the need for children to contribute
to the family’s income.
Psychological problems related to
trauma, which is widespread among children, are also an issue.
Claim: All 240 hospitals as
well as 1,200 health clinics are operating. As of March 2004, vaccination against
preventable diseases was 70 percent completed.
Fact: It is untrue to say that all
hospitals are open as coalition forces regularly shut down hospitals in areas
where there are high levels of conflict. Examples of areas that have had
hospitals closed down by US military include Sadr
City, Fallujah and Najaf.
The hospitals and clinics function
without equipment and medicines. Preventable diseases have sky-rocketed since
the invasion due to poor hygiene and contaminated water.
Claim: Some 194 city councils
have been established since July 2003.
Fact: City Councils are considered
irrelevant as the coalition controls any major decisions for cities.
Claim: Crude oil production is
already at pre-war levels with the benefits flowing directly to the Iraqi
people. Real GDP is forecast to grow by 30 percent in 2004. Fact: The reality is the
supply of petrol to Iraq is so poor that Iraqis queue for seven to eight hours
in order to full their cars.
Claim: There is an independent
media with over 120 newspapers and wide access to the internet and satellite
TV.
Fact: There is no freedom of
speech in Iraq. Media outlets that express opinions critical of the coalition
are closed down and broadcasters are censored or deported from the country.
Internet access was available in
Iraq before the war. Claim: In
March, the Iraqi Governing Council adopted new laws protecting basic human
rights. The transfer of power to
the new Iraqi Government has been endorsed unanimously by the UN Security
Council. On the 28th June, the new
Iraqi Government assumed authority with national elections planned for next
year.
Fact: The Iraqi Governing Council
was dismissed by the Iraqi community as a group of Ali Babas (thieves). Being
out of Iraq for up to 20 years, they held foreign passports and were known only
by their criminal records and bad reputations.
Basic human rights do not exist in
Iraq.
The new Iraqi Government is widely
considered to be illegitimate as is the coalition’s election plans.
Conclusion: Iraq is in chaos. The
people are bitter that the entire fabric of their community has been destroyed.
Basic services are not available.
Unemployment is high, people live
in poverty. They are angry that the borders are open for foreign terrorists to
enter and that violence is out of control.
Iraqis long for the foreign
military occupation to end, for basic services to be restored and for peace and
security to return to their neighbourhoods.
A survey conducted by the
coalition forces revealed that the majority of Iraqis support the resistance
against the occupation and will continue to fight, in either the armed struggle
or the non-violent political struggle, until the occupation ends.
Australians, we’ve had a setback, but let’s continue our struggle for
truth and humanity.
And let’s ask the question: Do
we really need a war on terror that uses terror as its weapon? How about a war
on ignorance, false claims and misconceptions!
A war on the
lies that hurt people from all walks of life, whether they are Iraqi or
American. And
our weapons? Truth and humanity.
Your pilgrim Donna